It is useful, and in many locales a building code requirement, that the attic area of a building be provided with a means to permit air exchange. Such ventilation prevents undue heat buildup, which can render the living quarters of the building uncomfortable and impose unreasonable energy requirements for cooling. Proper ventilation of the attic area also tends to preserve the structural integrity of the roof and roof coverings. One method of venting the roof structure consists of applying a venting media over a slot present along the ridge of a roof. These types of vents are known as ridge vents.
An example of a roof ridge vent is provided by U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,521 issued to Coulton et al. and owned by the assignee of the present application. The '521 patent discloses a roof ridge vent comprising a continuous, indeterminate-length, single sheet, roll-formed web of thermoformable material which is capable of being rolled lengthwise in a spiral roll during manufacture and unrolled lengthwise during installation on the roof ridge. The vent is sequentially thermoformed with a plurality of projections, or spacer elements, which create multiple paths of air flow between a face of the single sheet web and the underlying roof. Two narrow elongate strips of air permeable media are adhesively secured to the web lengthwise between adjacent rows of projections to prevent weather and insect infiltration into the attic space.
Other rollable ventilation products are known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,734 issued to Morris discloses a roll-form roof ridge ventilator made of a longitudinal blank of scored corrugated plastic sheet material. The vent is installed by unrolling the sheet material on a roof, folding the vent upon itself at scored lines, and securing the folded sections of the vent to the roof ridge.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,942,699, which issued to Spinelli and which is owned by the assignee of the present application, and the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,672, which issued to Rotter, disclose indeterminate-length, roll-form ventilation products made of matting material which are installed overlying roof ridges and which support a row of overlying cap shingles.
The embodiment illustrated in FIG. 12 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,660,955 issued to Simon discloses an indeterminate-length, roll-form web of plastic sheet material which has a plurality of spacer elements and which is unrolled and installed between rows of overlapping shingles to provide air passageways therebetween.
Roll-form roof ridge vents provide many advantages relative to non-roll-form, sectional roof ridge vent products. Roll-form vents are less costly to manufacture, facilitate efficient storage and transportation, and involve less labor costs to install. The roll form vents are installed as a continuous vent structure along the entire length of the roof ridge; while, sectional vents may require four or more separate sections to be installed in an end-to-end overlapping relation. Examples of sectional roof ridge vents are provided by U.S. Pat. Nos.: 1,717,728 issued to Moore; U.S. Pat. No. 2,200,031 issued to Lee; U.S. Pat. No. 2,214,183 issued to Seymour; U.S. Pat. No. 2,704,500 issued to Bonforte; U.S. Pat. No. 2,868,104 issued to Honholt et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 2,799,214 issued to Roose; U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,070 issued to Smith; U.S. Pat. No. 3,236,170 issued to Meyer et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,311,047 issued to Smith et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,481,263 issued to Belden; U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,657 issued to Sells; U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,399 issued to Cunning; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,325,290, 4,554,862 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,095 issued to Wolfert; U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,950 issued to Rudeen; U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,445 issued to Mankowski; U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,037 issued to Tubbesing et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,962,692 issued to Shuert; U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,041 issued to Kasner et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,579 issued to Rotter; U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,076 issued to Schiedegger et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,269 issued to Hansen.
In some situations, known roll-form roof ridge vents, specifically those made of rigid plastic material, can be difficult to center and align over a relatively long roof ridge. This is because roll-form vents, when unrolled, extend in a substantially straight line, and during installation, do not permit ready realignment or adjustment from the straight path taken during unrolling. Therefore, if the roof ridge unwantedly deviates from a straight path, or if the roll-form vent is not precisely angularly aligned during initial installation, the center of the vent may unwantedly shift away from the roof ridge at certain locations. Attempts by an installer to laterally and/or angularly realign the roll-form vent relative to the roof ridge may result in unaesthetic buckling or distorting of the vent along its length.
Therefore, while the roll-form and sectional roof ridge vents disclosed in the above referenced patents may function satisfactorily under certain circumstances, there is a need for a roof ridge vent which provides all the above stated advantages of a roll-form vent while being capable of being properly and readily aligned along its length on a roof ridge. The vent should be capable of being centered over a roof ridge which does not form a perfectly straight path and should accommodate lateral and/or angular adjustments required when initial installation begins at an unwanted offset angle relative to the roof ridge line. In addition, the vent should be capable of being manufactured efficiently by thermoforming molding equipment, preferably continuous vacuum rotary thermoforming equipment, and formed into a roll for shipping, transportation and subsequent installation.